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Laurier student a finalist in RBC blogger search

Communications, Public Affairs & Marketing

Dec 19/07

WATERLOO — Fourth-year Laurier business student Andrew Boss is one of 12 finalists from across Canada competing for six jobs as RBC p2p bloggers.

That means they’ll be working for the Royal Bank of Canada through the RBC p2p website, where they can voice their opinions on money issues through video and text blogs, and find answers to students’ questions about financial matters such as budgeting and saving.

“The job itself is really cool,” says 21-year-old Boss, who found out about it while randomly job-searching online in September.

In the tradition of all blogs, the bloggers are expected to be opinionated and somewhat entertaining.

“The content will be driven by the contest winners themselves,” says Royal Bank’s Michel Savoie, host of RBC p2p.

He says the bank received 112 valid submissions for the competition, which was about double what had been expected. Each contestant had to submit a one-minute audition video.

Boss filmed his audition in his bedroom in his parents’ Mississauga home. He started with a brief introduction — “Hi, my name’s Andrew Boss and I think I’d make a great RBC p2p blogger because I’m a computer student, turned business student, turned teacher” — and he followed up with a little song:

I’ve made it this far and learned some things along the way, Like how to ensure you’ll always have enough to pay, For tuition, books and rent, and even have enough left for beer, And all you’ll have to do is listen up and lend an ear.

It took quite a few takes to nail down the one-minute video, Boss says, because his younger brother, operating the camera, “kept making funny faces. He cracks me up.”

Boss adds that while he may not be an expert on banking services yet, he does know a few things about financial management.

“I’ve paid for school myself and recently bought a car. There’s plenty I don’t know, but I’ll learn.”

The six winners — to be determined by the number of votes they receive — will be expected to work 10 to 15 hours a week, for $15 to $20 an hour, for a one-year period, “from wherever and whenever,” says Savoie.

That’s fine by Boss. He graduates this coming spring and has applied for teachers’ college (he already supply teaches in elementary schools and has taught at a children’s theatre camp), so “I’ll be in school the whole time.”

The RBC contest closes January 15 with the winners to be announced the following day. The winners will then attend a four-day “blogger boot camp” in Toronto, where they will be given a $4,000 MacBook Pro, a video camera and a tripod.

“Who knows where something like this will lead.” says Boss.

To read the biographies, watch the videos and cast a vote (or several, since you can vote every day), go to: http://www.rbcp2p.com